Attack of the Vatican

That's nice...If ostentation is your thing.

The Catholic Church, the gray lady, she just hasn't been the same since the Reformation. The Church is still somewhat stinging from the Theses nailed up by Martin Luther, the loss of Latin liturgy, the loss of power in the clerical class with the publication of various vulgate editions of the Bible, and -in America, the rise of the Protestant Awakenings.

Also very pretty. Does it come in English?

But now, it appears that Mother Church has devised a plan to get back some of those Protestants, at least in England. Ironically, it revolves around the Anglican Church -the Church of England that Henry VIII founded to excuse his wives' somewhat unfortunate habit of dying, and thus sanctioning his new marriages and/or divorces.

Sure, we say we like women...but, are we willing to start a brand new religion just for a divorce?

The rightist Anglicans in Britain are in revolt over liberalizing social policies. And, to hear the Vatican talk it was the Anglicans who came to Rome, not vice versa.

The number of Anglicans wishing to join the Catholic Church has increased in recent years as the Anglican Church has welcomed the ordination of women and openly gay clergy and blessed homosexual partnerships, said Cardinal William Joseph Levada, the head of the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith...."The Catholic Church is responding to the many requests that have been submitted to the Holy See from groups of Anglican clergy and faithful in different parts of the world who wish to enter into full visible communion," Levada said.

So, there you have it. Hundreds of Anglicans at a time, keeping their rituals, becoming Catholic priests, and -predictably- even getting their own saints. This will only Balkanize the schism between right and left in the Christian community*, as it drives the Catholic Church further toward the right (particularly in Europe) as an alternative to global progress and the advance of human and civil rights.

You'd think Christ's Vicar on Earth would be a lot less creepy, a lot less like Nosferatu, and a helluva lot less of a Nazi (literally...he was in Hitler Youth and Luftwaffenhelfer).

*Not that it matters one whit to me; superstition is superstition no matter how much money or pomp you wrap it up in.